Luxogen LR12W modded with xr-e////PICS////

[photorob]

So here are the results. In order to get this to work you are going to have to enlarge the hole in the reflector. Once it is large enough the Led will fit right in and actually is pretty well focused with it's placement inside the reflector.


As you can see it is pretty effective. Next comes placement in the Puck. For the Led to fit in the reflector properly the LED is going to have to be connected Via the bottom connections because the top must be clear so that the Led will fit inside the reflector. I then placed a thin layer of thermal epoxy inside the reflector so that the top connections would not make contact with the reflector. I placed a small bit of metal between the led and the puck to elevate it. This is not permanent though this is just for momentary on off testing. When this is completed I will be placing a better heat sink down with some thermal epoxy.


This is the completed comparison results:



I'd probably be correct by saying that it is twice as bright as before. The beam is not perfect though. The beam is quite ringy. First I though this was because of the reflector but from further analysis I've realized that the dome on the led is the problem. The dome it self is ringy and if looked at it up close you can see that the shape is a dome with a noticeable ring around the dome. I currently own only one cree xr-e so I can't really compare them at the moment. From the next picture you can see the swirls with the noticeable inside ring.



If you to ignore the ring though I'd say that the beam has a pretty comparable hot spot to the original Lux III with much more spill.
As for brightness here is some comparisons:
( ALL comparisons are at the same exposure 500th / 8.0 / iso200 )



Even though the brightness of the next two look similar I'd say by eye the cree looks brighter and as you can partially see the cree has more spill



This is a lower exposure.



In the end I'd say that this is a pretty easy mod and worth the effort. The entire Luxogen line up are very modder friendly lights and make great hosts. I Don't own equipment to test brightness or power.

[mcmc]

Nice job, Rob. You've inspired me. I don't think I have quite the skills to do this as well as you have, but once my Cree XR-E arrives I'm willing to try =) Did you do this w/ a P2?

[photorob]

The led is a CREE P3 WC

[700club]

Wow, thats cool. I now know what my next mod will be, thanks.

[photorob]

After further comparisons I think this light is comparible to the kl4 with a hot spot that gives you some throw. I'm actually glad I sold my kl1 recently because I'd probably be trying to pry that thing open rite now. Does anyone know what this light is putting out in terms of power.

[wquiles]

Nice work

Will

[Trashman]

Would you say that with the Cree and a primary it's as bright or brighter than stock using a rechargeable?

[Martini]

I'd like to try this with the LR5 and LR10. Any idea how much current is going to the Cree?

[Pumaman]

Good job photorob. Modded my HA cr123 Luxogen lr5 with a p2 cree from nitroz. Didnt get it as perfect as photorob, could probably be moved forward a little more. Very bright, but gets hot fast on a 3.6v so i will probably only use primary cells. here is a comparison with a hds b42 on high(both on primary). the spill on the cree is impressive, and outdoors the artifacts arent noticeable. worth the effort.

[Martini]

Wow, that's nice. How easy was it to align? I know Luxeons are a snap in the LR5; is it the same story with the Cree? I think I'm gonna have to do this.

[photorob]

It is definitely brighter with a cree and a primary vs. lux III and rechargeable. All the shoots were taken with a rechargeable. Even though this mod works I would love to get my hands on a longer tighter reflector. The pictures do not show it but this set-up does create some rings in the beam pattern. If the reflector was about 4 or 5mm deeper it would probably help clean up the beam a little bit.

[photorob]

Pumaman from looking at your picture I've noticed a similarity with your mushy center spot. From what I've noticed the center spot from no matter what reflector I use has a messy center spot, except for and elph 3 reflector which has a stipple to it. I think this is due to the quality of the dome on the LED. If you look at the cree next to a lux the lux has a much cleaner clearer dome. I'm guessing that is due to the dome on the cree being a glass lens vs. the lux being a form of plastic. A little stipple in the reflector would probably clean that up though.

[photorob]

Voltage across the LED is something like 3.4V for the one I tested. J bin probably. I'm wondering if its worth throwing a UWAJ i have in there or just leave it alone. I'm guessing its probably a T-bin LuxIII.

Remeasured current on using RCR2 @4.18 volts is ~1A I think the crappiness of my DMM is adding some (a lot) of resistance, so lower current than is probably being drawn.

This is all I could find about the lights current.

[aceo07]

Wow. Awesome. So the hard part now is to find a good reflector/body combo?

I just got my Smartfire CR2 today (without batteries ). I hooked up a RCR123 to it and it humbles my HDS EDC U60. As bright if not more so, and better tint. I can't imagine how much brighter it'd be with the XR-E upgrade.

[Moonknight]

Wow...impressive. Nice work there photorob

[photorob]

As quickly as this mod lived it also died. The led is now in my mclux pd. Pics to follow.

[Martini]

What happened?

Pumaman, please tell me yours is still working.

[photorob]

The light didn't die. I just meant that I took the cree out and put it in my PD.

[mcmc]

Rob: how did you enlarge the reflector?

[photorob]

The reflector Is basically soft aluminum so I just took a razor blade to it. Well maybe more like a exacto knife. I did the same for the mclux reflectors to. the mclux's took a little grinding though.

[mcmc]

Wow, I am impressed, as it looks really clean. I thought you took a power tool to it or something. Thanks - I'm going to try it out!

[LumenHound]

I just modded my black LR10 with a Cree P4 and found that 2 older Canadian penny coins that were shaved on both sides and soldered together was the right thickness for the Cree. The top and bottom of the copper stack was flat lapped to 1200 grit. I used a Dremel to cut the proper size square heatsink pedastal.
I used 63/37 solder to actually solder the pedastal to the base of the Cree and found that it worked very well if your careful with regard to heat load on the Cree die.
I thought that I would need expensive low heat solder paste to get this to work, but no. The 63/37 had a low enough melting point to not damage the LED.
I used 28 gauge teflon coated wire to connect the the bottom positive and negative points of the LED to the original base. It rocks with a FLuPIC V2.2 and a AW protected recharchable.
I'll post amp readings on HI (setting 10/10)and MAX next week.
I've tested it against my brother's stock LR10 and the difference is huge.
On MAX it gets hot fast so there seems to be plenty of heat transfer going on.
I fabricateted a mica washer to go between the top of the Cree and the metal reflector so as to not short out the top Cree connections against the bottom of the metal reflector.

[mcmc]

Lumen hound, sounds pretty awesome. I'd like to get going on this for my lr-10 too - how hard was it to put in the flupic? (and which size did you buy?)

Pics would be great! =)

Also, any chance you'd be willing to sand/lap/solder a couple pennies and send them over to California, for a fee?

[LowTEC]

LumenHound, if you can show us a photo or 2 then that will be very helpful for a mob newb like me, thanx

[LumenHound]

Should have posted sooner but vacation got in the way.

MCMC: the FLuPIC install was relatively painless as long as you take your time with it.
You can find step by step instructions for installing one in a Luxogen LR10/LR12 & identical SmartFire B-13W in my earlier post here.

You will have to sand the edge of the 0.6 inch Fenix sized FLuPIC board for less than a minute in order to bring it down to the same size as the stock board. They are that close.

Sending you a identical copy of my copper stack wouldn't work. Due to the expected machining tolerance variations between the reflector and emitter board on a lower cost flashlight like this, the thickness of the copper pedestal would need to be tweaked for each individual unit. Mine came in at a thickness of 0.0955 inches. At this thickness, the outer flange of the emitter board had just the right amount of pressure against the bottom outside edge of the reflector for good heat transfer.

For what it's worth, my reflector is 0.4755 inches from top to bottom outer edge.

LowTEC: take a look at the pics below.





I used very fine 63/37 solder and found it very helpful to also use a tiny amount of acid type flux paste (the stuff a Plumber might use on copper water pipe) to get the job done. I lightly tinned the bottom of the emitter's central pad and the top of the copper stack and put a miniscule dab of acid flux paste on the emitter pad before soldering the Cree P4 to the copper stack.
The soldering iron used was a crappy Radio Shack 30 watt-switchable to 15 watt cheapo model with a tip filed down to a chisel point that resembled the tip of a Weller 100/130 watt soldering gun.
I used the same 30 watt iron with a custom made needle tip to solder the Teflon wires to the bottom pads of the Cree emitter.

My needle tip is nothing more than a regular screw-in soldering iron tip that has the last half inch reduced in diameter by half and carefully filed down to a long very fine tip.

For me, the fine tip on the soldering iron makes all the difference when your trying the solder ultra thin wires onto itty bitty converter/emitter boards.